James A.

Henretta David Brody

America: A Concise History

Fourth Edition
CHAPTER 24 Redefining Liberalism: The New Deal 19331939

Copyright 2010 by Bedford/St. Martins

Introduction: New Deal

March 1933 President Roosevelt gave an inaugural address attempting to dispel the gloom and despondency of the nation. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The President asked congress for broad Executive power to wage war against the economic emergency. Roosevelt launched a program of federal activism the New Deal.
(p.701)

Introduction: New Deal

The New Deal represented a new form of liberalism, the ideology of individual rights that long shaped American society and politics. Classical 19th Century liberalism kept governments small and relatively powerless. The regulatory liberals of the Progressive era had safeguarded freedom by strengthening the authority of the state.
(p.701)

Introduction: New Deal

New Deal activists went furthertheir social welfare liberalism expanded the individuals right to governmental assistance. From the 1930s-1970s, social welfare liberals
increased the scope of national legislation: created a centralized administrative system; and initiated new programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

(p.701)

The New Deal Takes Over, 19331935 The Roosevelts Leadership The Hundred Days The New Deal Under Attack

The New Deal Takes Over, 19331935

The Great Depression destroyed the political reputation of Herbert Hoover and boosted that of FDR. Ironically, there were not great ideological differences between Hoover and FDR. Both believed in a balanced government budget. Roosevelts charm and willingness to experiment made him popular.
(p.702)

Roosevelts Leadership
Roosevelt established a close rapport with the American people. 450,000 letters 5000 a week throughout the 1930s. The President used the medium of radio in his fireside chats. Fireside Chat #4 1933/10/23 He strengthened Presidential powers that had been expanded under Teddy R. and Wilson. He sat up a brain trust of professors from Columbia and Harvard.
(p.703)

Expanding Federal Bureaucracy

Talented intellectuals and administers attracted hundreds of highly qualified recruits to Washington. Young professors and newly trained lawyers streamed out of Ivy League universities into the expanding federal bureaucracy. Inspired by the idealism of the New Deal, many of them devoted their lives to public service and the principles of social welfare liberalism.
(p.703)

The Hundred Days

Roosevelt promised action now and he kept his promise. In a legendary legislative session, known as the Hundred Days Congress enacted 15 major bills that focused on major problems such as
Banking failures. Agricultural overproduction The Business slump Soaring unemployment.

(p.703)

The Hundred Days

The first effort was to address the banking crisis. Roosevelt declared a banking holiday on March 5. 4 days later Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act which allowed banks to reopen under Treasury Department oversight. The Glass-Steagall Act created the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) 4000 banks collapsed prior to Roosevelts inauguration; only 61 closed in 1934.
(p.703)

Other initiatives
Congress created the Home Owners Loan Corporation The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) mobilized 250,000 young men to do reforestation and conservation work. The Tennessee Valley Authority was set up to produce cheap hydroelectric power. The TVA was criticized as creeping socialism.
(p.704)

Farming
The Agricultural Adjustment Act began direct governmental regulation of the Farm economy to solve the problem of overproduction and low prices. The AAA led to
reduction of farm output, providing of cash subsidies to some farmers, strengthening of large landholders.

By dumping cash in the farmers hand (a special interest policy that continues to this day) the AAA stabilized the farm economy.
(p.705)

Agricultural Adjustment Act

The AAA set up an allotment system for
wheat, cotton, corn, hogs, rice, tobacco
and dairy products.

The AAA led to providing of cash subsidies to some farmers. reduction of farm output. strengthening of large landholders.
(p.703)

Unintended consequences
Subsidies went primarily to the large landowners who often cut production by reducing the amount of land they rented to tenants sharecroppers. In the South, where many sharecroppers were black and landowners and government administers were white, such practices forced 200,000 black families off the land.
(p.706)

Manufacturing
The New Deals response to depression in manufacturing was the National Industrial Recovery Act. It introduced European corporatist theories of government planning that had been implemented in Italy by Benito Mussolini. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) set up self governing associations in six hundred industries.
(p.706)

Unemployment
The administration quickly addressed the problems of massive unemployment and impoverished working families. In May Congress established the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), directed by Harry Hopkins. In his first hours in office, Hopkins distributed $5 million for relief programs. The New Deal put people to work with the Public Works Administration (PWA)
(p.706)

Public Works Projects

Legislation in the first hundred days of the New Deal began large-scale public works projects.
Early 1933, Congress appropriated 3.3 billion for the Public Works Administration. Nov. 1933, Roosevelt established the Civil Works Administration with Harry Hopkins and gave it 400 million. Within 30 days 2.6 million men and women were put to work.

(p.707)

Selling the NRA in Chinatown To mobilize support for its program, the National Recovery Administration (NRA) distributed millions of posters to businesses and families, urging them to display the "Blue Eagle" in shops, factories, and homes. Here, Constance King and Mae Chinn of the Chinese YMCA affix a poster (and a Chinese translation) to a shop in San Francisco that is complying with the NRA codes. Bettmann/Corbis.

(p.707)

The New Deal Under Attack

Roosevelt attempted to reform Wall Street. Insider trading, fraud, and reckless speculation had helped trigger the financial panic of 1929. Congress established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the stock market. The Banking Act of 1935 authorized the President to appoint a new board of governors for the Federal Reserve System.
(p.708)

The New Deal Under Attack

The New Deal came under attack from economic conservatives and the political right 1934, Republican business leaders joined with conservative Democrats to form the Liberty League that lobbied against reforms. The businessmen and politicians of the Liberty League attacked Roosevelt for advocating socialist policies.
(p.708)

The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court repudiated many New Deal measures. May 1935, the Court ruled the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional Schechter v. United States: a firm in Brooklyn, New York sold diseased chickens to local storekeepers in violation of NRA codes. Herbert Hoover condemed the NRA as statedirected economic system.
(p.709)

Father Charles Coughlin

Father Charles Coughlin challenged Roosevelt's leadership in the Midwest. He was a Catholic priest from Detroit who used the radio in the mid-1920s to enlarge his parish. 1933, 40 million Americans listened to Coughlins broadcasts. He initially supported the New Deal but turned against when Roosevelt refused to nationalize the banking system and expand the money supply. Coughlin organized the National Union for Social Justice.
(p.709)

Southern Populism
The most direct political threat to Roosevelt came from Senator Huey Long of Louisiana. Long was the democratic governor in LA from 1928 to 1932 and was stunningly popular. He increased taxes on business corporations, lowered utility bills and built new highways. In order to achieve this, he seized dictatorial control of the state government. As a Senator in 1934, he broke with the New Deal and established Share Our Wealth Society, with 4 million members.
(p.709)

(p.709)

Growing authoritarianism
Although many of Coughlin and Longs proposals were similar to the New Deal, they did not have much respect for representative government. Coughlin advocated dictatorial rule to preserve democracy. Long declared Im the constitution around here. Voters seemed untroubled by their authoritarian views.
(p.710)

The Second New Deal, 19351938 Legislative Accomplishments The 1936 Election Stalemate

The Second New Deal, 19351938

Under attack from the conservative right and the populist left, Roosevelt fashioned a liberal program. Historians have labeled this shift in policy as The Second New Deal. Roosevelt now openly criticized the money classes. He borrowed parts of Coughlin and Longs proposals with a tax increase on corporate profits and wealthy citizens.
(p.710)

Legislative Accomplishments
The first New Deal focused on economic recovery the second New Deal emphasized social justice. The Second New Deal used national legislation to enhance: the power of working people the economic security of the old, disabled and unemployed.
(p.710)

Legislative Accomplishments
The first beneficiary of Roosevelts move to the left was the labor movement. There was a rising number of strikes in 1934. The Wagner Act (1935) upheld the right of industrial workers to join unions. The Act forbade employers to fire workers for union activities. The Wagner Act did not apply to farm workers.
(p.711)

Legislative Accomplishments
The Social Security Act included old age pensions for most privately employed workers. It also established a federal-state system of workers compensation for unemployed workers. At the insistence of southern Democrats, farm workers and domestic servants were excluded.
(p.711)

The Welfare State

The Social Security Act was a milestone in the creation of an American Welfare State The Act mandated aid to various categories of Americans such as the blind, deaf, and disabled as well as disabled children. Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) enrolled 14.1 million Americans by 1994, 60% of whom were black or hispanic.
(p.711)

The 1936 Election

As the 1936 election approached, new voters joined the Democratic Party. Many had benefited from New Deal programs. Republicans did not challenge the New Deal directly. They choose Afred Landon, gov. of Kansas as their candidate. Republicans criticized Roosevelt as potentially authoritarian, along the lines of European facism. Roosevelt won by 60% of the vote.
(p.713)

The 1936 Election

The

(p.713)

Stalemate
FDR was inaugurated in January of 1937. His hopes of expanding the liberal welfare state were quickly dashed by the Supreme Court. Staunch opposition also arose within Congress and in the South.

(p.713)

Stalemate
1935, the Supreme Court struck down a series of New Deal measures by a narrow margin of 5 to 4. Roosevelt stunned Congress by asking for changes in the Court. Congress rejected his proposal after a bitter months-long debate. Roosevelts attempt to alter the Supreme Court suggested to many critics that he was sidestepping the Constitution.
(p.714)

Stalemate
Although Roosevelt lost the battle, he won the war. The Court upheld a California minimum wage law and the Wagner and Security Acts. Several Supremes resigned, allowing Roosevelt to reshape the Court with new appointees. William O. Douglas, Hugo Black and Felix Frankfurter were appointed.
(p.714)

Stalemate
The Roosevelt recession of 1937-1938 was caused by slashing the federal budget inadvertently costing jobs. The stock market dropped and unemployment soared from 14 to 19 percent. Keynesian economics Deficit spending The New Deal ran out of steam. Roosevelt was a reformer not a revolutionary.
(p.714)

The New Deals Impact on Society The Rise of Labor Women and Blacks in the New Deal Migrants and Minorities in the West A New Deal for the Environment The New Deal and the Arts The Legacies of the New Deal

The New Deals Impact on Society

The New Deal had a tremendous impact on the nation and altered Americans relationship to their government. To serve a diverse constituency, New Dealers created a sizable federal bureaucracy; the number of civilian employees increased by 80% between 1929 and 1940 and reached a total of 1 million.
(p.715)

The Rise of Labor

Labor unions increased in clout and numbers during the New Deal. The Wagner Act made it easier for unions to organize workers to win recognition from managers, secure higher wagers, sonority systems and grievance procedures. By the end of the decade there were almost 9 million unionized workers in the nonfarm workforce.
(p.715)

The CIO
The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was more inclusive of minorities. John L. Lewis was the leader of the United Mine Workers (UMW) and was the foremost exponent of industrial unionism. The CIO scored its first major victories against General Motors and the U.S. Steel Corporation.
(p.716)

The Rise of Labor

The 1930s constituted the most successful period of labor organizing in American history. 1937: Labor unions called nearly 5000 strikes and won favorable settlements in 80% of the cases. CIO allied itself with the Democratic Party.\ Roosevelt never gave unions a high priority although the New Deal did recognize industrial labor as legitimate.
(p.715)

(p.717)

Women in the New Deal

The New Deal did not directly challenge gender inequality; no legislation was passed guaranteeing gender equality in the workforce until the 1970s. However, the doors were opened under Roosevelt for women granted appointments to cabinet-level positions. Women were much more visible in the workplace. The New Deal provided the context for the development of a a womens network for feminist and reform causes. (p.718)

Blacks in the New Deal

The needs of black Americans received low priority. 1931, Scottsboro, Alabama, nine young black men were accused of rape by two white women riding on a freight train. Despite the inconsistencies of the womens stories, all 8 received death sentences within weeks. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the sentences. White mobs lynched 20 blacks in 1930 and 24 in 1934.
(p.718)

Scottsboro Defendants
The 1931 trial in Scottsboro, Alabama, of nine black youths accused of raping two white women became a symbol of the injustices African Americans faced in the Souths legal system. Denied access to an attorney, the defendants were found guilty, and eight were sentenced to death. When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned their convictions in 1932, the International Labor Defense organization hired the noted criminal attorney Samuel Leibowitz, who eventually won the acquittal of four defendants and jail sentences for the rest. This photograph, taken in a Decatur jail, shows Leibowitz conferring with Haywood Patterson, in front of the other eight defendants

(p.718)

The Great Migration

Many blacks left the South and moved north To Harlem. Since the emancipation, most blacks had supported the party of Lincoln (Republican). Unemployment in Harlem rose to 50% in 1933. During the New Deal, blacks largely deserted the Republican Party for the Democratic Party. 1936, northern blacks gave Roosevelt 71% of their vote. In Harlem, black support for the President reached an extraordinary 81% African American have remained Democratic since then.

(p.719)

The Indian Reorganization Act

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, reversed the Dawes Act of 1887 and promoted selfgovernment for reservation Indians. A majority of Indian peoples (174 tribes) accepted the reorganization policy. 78 tribes refused, desiring to continue their policy of consensus rather than majority vote. The government adopted an attitude of cultural pluralism.
(p.719)

Migrants and Minorities in the West

After 1870 the American West grew dramatically in population and wealth. 1920s, agriculture in California had become big business. Lettuce, tomatoes, peaches, grapes and cotton. Thousands of workers migrated from Mexico to help with the long harvest season. 1930, the census reported 617,000 Mexican Americans.
(p.720)

(p.720)

Migrants in the West

The New Deal benefited the situation of Mexican Americans. New Deal initiatives supporting unions was helpful for the acculturation of Mexicans. Many Mexicans joined the Democratic Party. Farm worker Cesar Chavez experienced discrimination as a child. 1962, Chavez organized the United Farm Workers a union of Mex-American laborers.
(p.721)

Asian Migrants
Migrants from China, Japan and the Philippines were a significant presence in some western cities. Chinese Americans were less prosperous than Japanese. San Francisco most Chinese worked in small ethnic businesses; restaurants, laundries and textile firms. In 1931, approx one-sixth of San Frans Chinese pop was receiving public aid.
(p.721)

Filipino immigrants
Filipinos were unaffected by restrictions on Asian immigrations in 1924 because they were from a U.S. territory. As the depression cut wages, Filipino immigration decreased. The Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 granted independence to the Philippines and reclassified all Filipinos in the U.S. as aliens and restricted Filipino immigration.

Dust Bowl
California became a destination of hope among farmers fleeing the dust bowl of the Great Plains. Between 1930 and 1941, a severe drought afflicted the semiarid states of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas and Kansas. The Dust Bowl was of human creation. Farmers pushed the agriculture of the Great Plains beyond its natural limits. The ecological disaster led to a mass exodus. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck.
(p.721-22)

A New Deal for the Environment

Concern for the land was a dominant theme of the New Deal. The most visible undertaking was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) which was intended to limit flooding and erosion in a 7 state area. 1933, Roosevelt encouraged Congress to fund the TN project. The dams and the hydroelectric plants provided cheap electric power.
(p.722)

Rural Electrification
1935, The Rural Electrification Project (REA) was another attempt to improve the quality of rural life. Less than one tenth of the nations 6.8 million farms had electricity. Private utilities balked at the expense of running electric lines to individual farms. The REA created nonprofit farm cooperatives. By 1940, 40% of nations farms had electricity, by 1950, the number rose to 90%.
(p.723)

Electricity
Electricity brought many changes to rural life.
Electric machines and water pumps saved hours of labor. Electric irons, vacuum cleaners and washing machines made house work easier. Radios integrated rural areas into national culture. Electric lights lengthened the time children could read and families eat meals.

(p.725)

Land management
Following the Dust Bowl disaster, the government focused on proper land management. 220 million trees were planted from Texas to Canada. CCC and WPA workers built the famous Blue Ridge Parkway which connects Shenandoah National Park in VA with the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina.
(p.725)

Art for the millions

As a response to the Great Depression, many American writers and artists redefined their relationship to society. The New Deal funded many arts projects. A WPA project known as Federal One put unemployed artists, actors and writers to work. Art for the millions was a slogan that encouraged painting of murals on public bldgs.
(p.725)

The Federal Art Project

FAP gave work to many young artists who would become the 20th centurys leading artists. Jackson Pollock, Alice Neel, William de Kooning, and Louise Nevelson all received support. The Federal Music Project employed 15,000 musicians and government-sponsored orchestras. Composer Aaron Copeland wrote Billy the Kid (1938) and Rodeo (1942) for the WPA. Musicologists Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger cataloged hundreds of American folk songs.
(p.725)

The Federal Theatre Project

The most ambitious program was the FTP Under the direction of Hallie Flanagan, the FTP reached an audience of 25 to 30 million people in four years of existance. Talented directors and playwrights included Orson Wells, John Huston and Arthur Miller. Many FTP productions took a critical look at American social problems which brought it under attack in Congress as sympathetic to communism and its funding was cut off in 1939.
(p.725)

The documentary impulse

Documentary artists focused on actual events that were relevant to peoples lives. John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath and John Dos Passos USA Trilogy used actual newspaper clippings and headlines in its story. The Depression itself left a deep psychic wound, an invisible scar in peoples minds that lasted for half a century. It was a legacy of fear but also a desire for acquisition.
(p.725)

The Legacies of the New Deal

That was the Great Depression that stark terror of losing control over life. The New Deal attempted to restore hope and security. FDRs New Deal redefined the regulatory liberalism of the Progressive era And created a powerful national bureaucracy of a social welfare state.
(p.726)

The Legacies of the New Deal

During the 1930s, millions of people began to pay taxes directly to Social Security Administration and to the Internal Revenue Service. More than one-third of the population also received government assistance from federal programs. Like all major transformations, the New Deal was criticized for either doing too much or too little.

(p.726)

Varieties of liberalism
Classical liberals criticized the New Deal for intruding deeply into the personal and financial lives of citizens. Advocates of Social Welfare liberalism complained that the New Deals safety net had too many gaping holes, especially when compared to Europe. They pointed out that there was no healthcare system, that benefits were minimal and excluded domestic and farm workers.
(p.727)

Political realignment
By the 1960s there would be significant expansion of social-welfare programs during the Great Society initiative of President Lyndon Johnson. The New Deal transformed the American political landscape. Since the Civil Warfrom 1860 to 1932the Republican Party had commanded the votes of a majority of Americans. That changes with the New Deal.
(p.727)

Political realignment
Millions of voters were brought into the Democratic Party. Immigrants from Italy, Poland, African Americans and Jews all realigned with the Democrats. Organized labor aligned itself with Democrats. The New Deal wrestled with the racial issue. Roosevelt and the Democrats depended on the Southern Whites but Democrats in the North and West opposed racial discrimination.
(p.727)

Southern Opposition
Beginning in the late 1930s, southern Democrats rejected further expansion of the federal power fearing that it would be used to undermine white rule. This southern Democratic opposition, along with WWII, caused the New Deal to come to an end in 1938. As Europe moved toward war and Japan flexed its muscles, Roosevelt pushed reform into the background and focused on foreign affairs.
(p.727)

Summary
F.D. Roosevelts first New Deal focused on
stimulating recovery, relief to the unemployed and regulating banks. The Second New Deal promoted socialwelfare legislation to provide economic security. The New Deal benefited women and blacks, union workers, migrant workers from Mexico, Asians and okies.
(p.728)

Summary
African Americans shifted in massive
numbers from their traditional loyalty to the Republican Party, to the New Deal Democrats. The Partys coalition of white southerners, ethnic workers, farmers, and the middle class gave FDR and other Democrats a landslide victory in 1936.
(p.728)

Summary
New Deal In 1933, the preserving resolved the banking crisis, while capitalist institutions. It expanded the federal government thru
The Social Security system, Farm subsidy programs, Public works projects.

built great dams and The TVA and the WPA improved the quality of electricity projects and national life.
(p.728)

 Huey P Long Segment from Documentary on the 1930s, "Just Around the Corner"

2 of 10 Kingfish A Story of Huey P. Long HBO 1995 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YX0ea9bak8&pla ynext=1&list=PL47AC7DCE2414D580

3 of 10 Kingfish A Story of Huey P. Long HBO 1995

 The New Deal 5 mins and 25 secs. Roosevelt And U.S. History: 1930-1945 (clip) 2 mins The Great Depression 1929 - Documentary -10 mins.

History Channel - The Great Depression 3.38 mins.

ONLINE LECTURES

The Great Depression, World War II, and American Prosperity - Part 1 [Lecture 5] by Thomas Woods The Economics of the New Deal and World War II [Lecture 12 of 15] by Thomas Woods

Chapter 24 Redefining Liberalism: The New Deal 19331939

Map 24.1 Public Works in the New Deal: The PWA in Action, 19331939 (p. 712) Map 24.2 The Tennessee Valley Authority, 19331952 (p. 723) FDR (p. 702)